Green Lantern #162
© 2003 D.C.

Mania Grade: B+
Authors: Judd Winick, Charlie Adlard
Publisher: D.C.
Price: $2.25

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GREEN LANTERN #162

It's not easy being green - especially if you're Oliver Queen and Kyle Raynor and you're expected to work together because you share the same taste in color schemes. But this time Ollie and Kyle share a similar goal: shape-shifting aliens in search of bleach, which for them is a major narcotic, have made forays into their respective cities, causing the usual mayhem that such races do. And if all that weren't bad enough, someone claiming to be the long-dead Abin Sur has shown up.

What a dilemma. Last week I criticized Ben Raab for portraying Kyle Raynor as too mean-spirited, and now Judd Winick, who knows the character probably better than anyone (even Ron Marz), gives us the same portrayal - and it works. Ouch. Ben, you have my apologies. Winick also picks up the squabbling that Raab begins between our two green heroes and deepens it by addressing the main thing that anti-Kyle agitators have always held against the new kid: that he's a replacement for Hal Jordan. Ollie doesn't buy it any more than that agitators do - yet. Perhaps this team-up will change everyone's mind.

For a weekly crossover "event," this one's getting off to a rather slow start - the only things truly established so far are that a) Ollie and Kyle don't get along; and b) the aliens are bad news. There's also the fairly obvious possibility that the Abin Sur who greets Ollie at the end of this issue is one of the aliens - they do shape-shift, remember? Somehow, though, it doesn't matter so long as we keep getting character-building scenes like the main verbal fight between Ollie and Kyle, with some of the best sparring we've seen since Kevin Smith wrote GREEN ARROW. (I guess Kyle's new costume does look like a "gay biker" outfit - no wonder I find it so appealing.)

On top of that, Charlie Adlard's artwork is still taking some getting used to, but it provides a visual continuity to the crossover that most events like this rarely get. (That, and I imagine it'll make the inevitable collected edition of this storyline look that much more of a piece.) It helps matters greatly that Raab and Winick write with very similar approaches, and each knows his character well enough that their reactions make perfect sense. Now, if someone besides Connor could come in and give them the "Can't we all just get along?" speech so that they'll finally work together properly, we might have a Green Lantern-Green Arrow team-up to rival that of the old days.